My friend asked me to take a look at his setup he is going for. What are your thoughts?

Case 1200W ATX $350 <He gave me no other Information
Processor Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 (3.0 GHz) $1026
Motherboard ASUS Strike II Extreme $445
RAM Corsair 2GB DDR2-800 $95 < I say atleast 4GB
Drive Lite-on 20x $33<I say get lightscribe too
Hard Drives 300GB WD 10,000RPM Velociraptor $297
Soundcard Creative Labs X-FI Xtrememusic $98
Videocard Geforce GTX 280 1GB (x2) <I'm not familiar with these too much.

I say he's insane. Where did he get all that cash?

But seriously, that should work fine. I might suggest him to get a slightly less expensive processor though.

It's way overkill, and all the parts are ridiculously expensive for their actual performance.

Pretty much my thoughts, if your going to spend $1000 on a processor, I would be looking at 3GB RAM minimum and more than 300GB HDD.

Wow, More then $1000 for 1 processor...I think that he should lower the price on some of his things too. Make things even. Or that setup would be a fail.

i say get some DDR2-1066 instead of 800 merely for high linked FSB:DRAM when overclocking.
Water cool it
4-8GB of RAM
1-2TB hard drives for storage.
Auzentech prelude or asus xonar over xtreme music.

That's if budget isn't that much of an issue.

Similar performance can be gained from Q9450, DFI lan party X38 + 2x 4870 or 2x 4870x2. Regular hard drives. Basically don't overspend on the processor since bloomsfield is out Q4 this year and hopefully lynnfield early next year so investing $1000 will be a waste.

He just told me he got that setup from PCGamer Magazine >_>, So basically its Overpriced Overkill?

It is going to cost a fortune, and a year down the line it'll be nothing special.

Best thing to do is spend $1000 now, and then $1000 in a year or so.

So his best bet is to buy Good now and upgrade in the future?

Yes. And I'd suggesting getting a 3GHz Core 2 Duo.

Yeh, pretty much. Look for something which is going to be usable in the future, like a motherboard which should still be compatible with future processor. Bob-sama should be able to advise on motherboard sockets and which one would be the most future proof.

Of course you only have one real choice for compatibility... LGA775 is all there really is. Don't spend more than $300 on a processor--especially since LGA775 is completely retired for upper mainstream around Q4. I've always said Extreme Edition processors are a waste of money--especially now that is the case. Nehalem is arriving--look for AMD-style on-die memory controllers and quick-path interface--Intel's version of AMD's HT3.0. Other things too--DDR3 is looking more and more mainstream--I don't have specifics about that but really a P45 or X38 board with DDR3 and 2x1GB or 2x2GB DDR3 would be plenty. For graphics, GTX280 looks like it'll be overpriced for the performance. I'd say wait for HD4870 and 4870X2. I don't think they'll get the out-right performance crown, but they look to be the best price/performance. They'll also debut at half the price the GTX280 is right now--$300 or so for the 4870. IIRC, 1/3 more pure processing power plus better anti-aliasing and some other nice features, including GDDR5 support. Rumor has it initial cards are 512MB only--due to a lack of supply of GDDR5. Look later for 1GB cards for resolutions above 1600x1200 or so.

Complete overkill.

Now is not the best time to splurge on an extreme high-end desktop as the Intel socket LGA775 is being retired and the next line of processors will be using LGA1366. Basically it means that you will be unable to upgrade to a newer processor.

Case 1200W ATX $350 <He gave me no other Information - Not many people need that high wattage power supply.
Processor Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 (3.0 GHz) $1026 - Extreme processors are not that much different from their cheaper counterparts which are at 1/3 of its price.
Motherboard ASUS Strike II Extreme $445 - I'd for for an Intel chipset instead.
RAM Corsair 2GB DDR2-800 $95 < I say atleast 4GB - Get 4GB DDR2, DDR3 if you have the cash.
Drive Lite-on 20x $33<I say get lightscribe too - ...
Hard Drives 300GB WD 10,000RPM Velociraptor $297 - Don't really need a Velociraptor, get two normal hard drives in raid instead.
Soundcard Creative Labs X-FI Xtrememusic $98 - ..
Videocard Geforce GTX 280 1GB (x2) <I'm not familiar with these too much. - Don't really need two of these guys.

In short...

Core 2 Duo E7200
2x2GB DDR2 800
Reasonable P35 or P45 motherboard
Radeon HD4850 or HD4870
As much storage as you want to buy (it's cheap and you can bring storage drives to new computers with ease), I'd suggest Western Digital
Reasonable case (sub-$150, but these can be reused as well)
Good power supply (I usually say just look at Seasonic power supplies--they're all good, but look at $80-120+ for higher-wattage units. You don't need 1+kW.)
One or two DVD burners, SATA interface only, and I'd suggest Lightscribe but it's not THAT important (in 6 months I've used it exactly zero times)
I'd suggest upgraded cooling, but it's not that important unless you want to overclock (Scythe, Thermalright, &c)
Definitely, thermal compound AND thermal compound remover. Arctic Cooling MX-2 and Arctic Silver ArctiClean, respectively.
Windows Vista 64-bit, I'd say Home Premium is your best choice for most systems, though many are using Business. If you have money to spare, Ultimate is great. For Vista, I'd say just get an OEM copy--you're unlikely to build even two systems, at which point you'd still spend less than one retail license and the systems will be fine.

Just so your friend knows--having two computers that can game is a major advantage depending on your friends. Two systems really are greater than one--especially since you can get two decent systems for the same price as one high-end system.

Thats the triple of my computer..
Is he a insane gamer?
And, burning big CDs/DVDs?

That ASUS Motherboard doesnt really fit in.